FlickLaunch to build ‘House’ on Facebook

Platform debuts with horror release

The path to a viable online film launch may be getting shorter, as FlickLaunch, the fledgling movie distribution platform embedded in Facebook, plans to premiere horror thriller “The Perfect House” on Oct. 1. The seven-day rental will be available for $5 via the film’s Facebook fanpage.

Pic is directed by Kris Hulbert and Randy Kent and stars Monique Parent, Felissa Rose, Will Robertson, Andrea Vahl, Chris Raab, Jonathan Tiersten, and John Philbin. Story centers on newlyweds who are given the tour of their dream home by a perky real estate agent, only to find out that the house might have a foreboding past.

FlickLaunch announced the deal Friday, touting itself as a platform that enables indie filmmakers to market to and access a global audience through Facebook without the high costs of traditional distribution. FlickLaunch said filmmakers receive up to 70% of rental revenues.

“We see a great opportunity to help these filmmakers get their films seen by offering this powerful transactional VOD distribution platform,” said FlickLaunch co-founder and CEO Craig Tanner in a statement. “Currently, many independent films are not lucky enough to secure distribution from a major distributor and rarely have a meaningful marketing budget to reach a mass audience. FlickLaunch provides an immediate solution to filmmakers for both of these issues.”

Director Hulbert said he began to envision release of “Perfect House” on FlickLaunch during post-production. “I immediately saw we were in a special position, and the value to release our film in this new distribution model was enormous,” he said.

While the Facebook VOD launch is meant to bypass the need for a theatrical run, the filmmakers are also taking a page from the “Paranormal Activity” playbook and planning free screenings across the country using a “demand it” style tour in August.

FlickLaunch’s model provides for its player and application to be uploaded to the filmmaker’s Facebook fanpage, and allows the filmmaker to give away a predetermined amount of free views to promote the movie or set the rental price.

Once that predetermined number has been exhausted, movies can be rented at a price of $1 to $5.